Revisiting Christmas 1974 Re-Play

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day dawned very early in 1974, as I woke up at about 5am to see what Father Christmas had left for me. Perhaps mindful of my parents, he dropped a big bag of presents off in my bedroom. I saw a fairly big rectangular box and, as most 9-year-olds would, I opened that first. To my delight it was my first cassette player, and it came with two cassettes. The Greatest Hits of Walt Disney and Keep on Wombling were the two main reasons why I was kept quiet for pretty much the next few days as I played both endlessly to learn the words. How do they sound now that I am no longer 9 years old? Well, vinyl now has the answer. I got the Disney album two or three years back, and I got Keep on Wombling earlier this week. So, it’s time for that time travel that music is so effective at providing to start. Let’s give classic Disney a spin first.

The Greatest Hits of Walt Disney

This record contains tunes from pretty much all of the Disney films from Snow White to Robin Hood, the ‘new’ Disney film which had come out the year before. All of the songs are taken from the original soundtracks, and feature artists such as Peggy Lee, Phil Harris, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. It is a goldmine of catchy tunes, emotional tunes and flat-out odd tunes! On the first side, the catchiest tunes are definitely Bare Necessities, and Everybody Wants to be a Cat, which both feature the brilliant Phil Harris who played Baloo and Thomas O’Malley. The latter needs to be listened to through the prism of the time as it does feature some fairly broad and, in the case of the Chinese cat, borderline offensive stereotypical accents and lyrics. Of course, as a 9-year-old in the 70s I found it funny and, in any case, it just reflected culture and society of the time. The gorgeous, and atypical, song which shines above all the others to adult ears is The Age of not Believing from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, sung by the legendary Angela Lansbury. It reflects the skill of the Sherman Brothers who wrote a song aimed squarely at the adults in the audience, but which I loved as a child. It is scarily accurate, and as of yet I still appear to be in that age.

With 12 songs on each side that just zip by, it is a real lesson in the way that the studio could write songs that appealed to everyone, and which packed in multitudes of emotions in 2 or 3 minutes. Side 2 carries on in the same vein as the familiar tunes just follow each other with scarcely a break. From Mary Poppins comes Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and from The Jungle Book comes I Wanna Be Like You featuring a jazz style duet from Phil Harris and Louis Prima. They are two of the most celebrated songs of the studio’s history, but they are overshadowed by When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinocchio which became the theme tune of Disney almost as soon as it was released. For an opening trio of songs on any side of any album they take some beating. When I first got the cassette The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers from Winnie the Pooh was my favourite to learn and then sing along with, and it still hits the spot! It’s worth remembering that in those days of three channels the original Disney films rarely turned up on TV, so we had little chance of seeing them after their original release. It made the cassette both a treasure and a time capsule, and it’s perhaps even more so nowadays, ironically, as Disney’s original songs have been quietly shelved in favour of the more modern tunes. It is a reminder of a more innocent age that just melted away all those years and left a nostalgic smile on my face.

Keep on Wombling

Anyone who has ever read my tweets will be in no doubt as to the extent of my love for The Wombles, and the Keep on Wombling album in particular. That was the cassette that I kept returning to after that first few days for the sheer range of music that it introduced me to. The album goes from classical to music hall to rock ‘n’ roll to country and ends up with one of the finest Christmas songs ever written. For my 9-year-old self it was an album that set up my ability to appreciate a whole range of music, something that has stayed with me for the rest of my life.

It starts with a David Bowie style track, Womble of the Universe, which borrows from Space Oddity, but which makes its own way through space. I will never tire of this song, and its opening chords are as familiar to me as any song in my vast musical memory bank. The other highlight on the first side, in a very strong opening sextet of songs, is the incredible Underground Overture which takes in a range of classical inspirations, and which just captivated me from the very first time I heard it. On Side 2, the Rock ‘n’ Roll of The Wombling Twist was a huge favourite of mine at the time as I was then, and remain now, a massive Showaddywaddy fan, and this just channelled that 50s sound perfectly. Listen, in particular, for a Jerry Lee Lewis style piano solo that the man himself would be proud of. The country ballad Wipe Those Womble Tears from Your Eyes would be a bit much for the average 9-year-old without Mike Batt’s beautiful lightness of touch and incredible ear for a tune. In his hands, it became a song that made me emotional as a child and still does nowadays. Well, the final track is their biggest hit and perhaps The Wombles’ finest single track. It is Wombling Merry Christmas which never fails to move me and make me feel like the festive season has started. I have, of course, played it every Christmas to my own children and they are, I’m glad to say word perfect! No group and no album can compete with Keep on Wombling when it comes to recreating my childhood. The dizzying creativity of Mike Batt has arguably never been better showcased than it is by this album. It is The Wombles own Sergeant Peppers!

How did it feel?

The interesting thing about the two albums wasn’t that I remembered the words. That’s par for the course with me. It was that I remembered the order and knew exactly what was coming before the first note was played. It has made me realise anew how influential your first musical loves are. These two albums set my musical tastes in a big way, and they have one vital thing in common. Not one of those songs talks down to its audience. Quite the contrary. It requires the young listener, and the older listener, to rise to meet them. What a privilege it has been to recreate that Christmas morning of so many years ago.